Commentator, best-selling author and longtime adviser to four U.S. presidents, David Gergen will visit the Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum on Tuesday, Feb. 12 to discuss "Eyewitness to Power: Leadership in America." Gergen's address begins at 6:45 p.m. and is free and open to the public, with seating on a first-come basis.
Gergen, whose many roles in American national life also include the titles of editor, teacher, and public servant, has served as director of communications for President Reagan and held positions in the administrations of Presidents Nixon and Ford. In 1993, he agreed to first serve as counselor to President Clinton on both foreign policy and domestic affairs, then as special international adviser to the President and to Secretary of State Warren Christopher.
Gergen currently serves as editor-at-large at U.S. News & World Report, and as a regular television commentator. He served as moderator of World @ Large, a 13-part PBS discussion series for two seasons. He is also a professor of public service at the John F. Kennedy School of Government and is director of its Center for Public Leadership. In the fall of 2000, he published the best-selling book Eyewitness to Power: The Essence of Leadership, Nixon to Clinton.
He has served in the White House as an adviser to Presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and Clinton. Most recently, he served for 18 months in the Clinton administration, first as counselor to the President and then as special adviser to the President and the Secretary of State. He returned to private life in January 1995.
During 1984-1993, Gergen worked mostly as a journalist, including more than two years as editor of U.S. News. Working with the owner and editor-in-chief Mortimer Zuckerman and a revived staff, he helped to guide the magazine to record gains in circulation and advertising. During that period, he also teamed up with Mark Shields for political commentary every Friday night for five years on the MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour. The two were a popular political team and won numerous accolades for their political coverage.
A native of Durham, North Carolina, he is an honors graduate of Yale University and the Harvard Law School (LLB, 1967). He is a member of the District of Columbia bar. In addition, he served for three-and-a-half years in the United States Navy, where he was posted for about two years to a ship home-ported in Japan.
Gergen is active on many nonprofit boards and is chairman of the National Selection Committee for the Innovations in American Government. He frequently lectures here in the United States and overseas, and holds 14 honorary degrees.
As part of his visit to Claremont McKenna College, Gergen will also address members and guests of the Res Publica Society during a lunchtime gathering in Irvine.
Information about this event may also be found online in the current Fortnightly: http://www.claremontmckenna.edu/mmca/temp_fn.php?volumeFN=23&issueFN=06&typeFN=f.